Cellular companies in the country are competing to encourage citizens for verification of their votes through Short Message Service (SMS) as over 4.6 million citizens have so far availed this facility. This SMS service was launched from March 1 to facilitate citizens to verify their vote registration and particulars in the voters lists.
Deputy Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Tariq Malik on Sunday told APP that Mobilink, being the largest mobile phone operator is leading in term of checking vote verification through SMS, as around 1.47 million eligible voters have utilised its network. Mobilink's share in total SMS utilised for the purpose is 31.17 per cent.
Telenor is second as far as using the particular service is concerned. Around 1.283 million voters have so far checked the status of their votes through its network and its share in total SMS is 28.45 per cent.
Ufone is third in a row with 980,075 SMS (21.74 per cent in total SMS), Warid with 448,440 (9.95 per cent in total SMS) and Zong with 392,816 (8.71 per cent in total SMS).
Tariq Malik said Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in collaboration with NADRA and mobile phone operators launched the world's biggest short message service (SMS) for 83.2 million Pakistani voters besides displaying new electoral rolls across the country.
He said on sending at short code 8300 CNIC number (without dashes), a voters gets an SMS with the information of his/her electoral area name in Urdu language, where she/he is registered to vote, including tehsil and district. Exact Block code number per Pakistan Census Organisation is also displayed with serial number in the respective voters list.
He said this information helps the person file for any objection and claims, in case one feels correction is required.
Tariq Malik said relevant forms are available on ECP website and at more than 50,000 display centers where these lists are displayed and added the ball is in citizens court they need to check their vote and make necessary correction, before its too late.
This innovative service is a milestone to facilitate the voters, he said, adding it is a great convenience to the citizens who are now able to check their vote status through e-governance using state-of-the-art technologies.
He also appreciated the co-operation of mobile companies in this historic move leading towards ensuring free and fair elections. This is the initial phase and cellular companies will design more strategies to encourage citizens while with the passage of time.